Wireless terminals, e.g., mobile nodes, in a cellular wireless communications system supporting uplink traffic channel communications with a base station attachment point, are typically power controlled with respect to their transmitter power level of operation, e.g., to accommodate for changing channel conditions and/or data rates.
While the base station may control wireless terminal transmission power based on received signal strength, the base station may not know the actual transmission power used by the wireless terminal or the wireless terminal's maximum transmission power level capacity.
From a scheduling and control perspective, it would be useful from a base station point of view if information were available from individual wireless terminals providing some indication of the terminal's ability to allocate transmission power, at a particular point in time, to the transmission of, e.g., user data.
Based on the above, it should be appreciated that there is a need for methods and apparatus for providing information to a base station about the amount of power available for transmission of, e.g., user data at one or more particular points in time.